Anthologizing Margaret Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks

Across the twentieth century, few poems by African American writers have been anthologized as frequently as Margaret Walker’s “For My People” and Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool.” These two powerful compositions became signature poems for their authors and staples in literature collections and classrooms. 

In November 1937, Poetry magazine published “For My People” by a 22-year-old poet named Margaret Walker. The poem gave voice to the pain, strength, and resilience of African Americans, or as Walker wrote, “my people.” It became her signature piece and a defining work of her literary career.

Five years later, in 1942, Walker’s collection For My People won the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets. The title poem stood out as the most recognizable work in the volume. Its themes of collective struggle and hope resonated across generations.

Walker’s national profile expanded when she appeared on the 1954 Anthology of Negro Poetry album, alongside Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others. Her reading of “For My People” gave the poem an added dimension through her own powerful voice. This audio exposure helped solidify the poem’s cultural importance.

From the late 1960s through the 1970s, editors of African American literature anthologies repeatedly selected “For My People.” Between 1967 and 1974 alone, the poem was featured in over 20 different collections. It quickly became one of the most frequently anthologized poems in Black literary history.

In 1975, the Smithsonian released The Poetry of Margaret Walker, a full album of her readings. Again, “For My People” took center stage. As Walker later remarked, the poem became so iconic that saying it was akin to saying her name.

Similarly, in September 1959, Poetry magazine published “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, then 42 years old. The short, striking poem captured the boldness and vulnerability of young Black boys chilling at a pool hall. Told in their collective voice, this persona poem became an enduring cultural touchstone.

By then, Brooks had already won the Pulitzer Prize and published several books. Yet “We Real Cool” would become her most anthologized and widely taught poem. Like Walker’s signature piece, it found a home in dozens of literature collections over the decades.

Although Brooks appreciated the poem’s popularity, she expressed concern that it overshadowed the breadth of her body of work. She noted that readers often focused on “We Real Cool” while overlooking her many other rich and complex poems. Nonetheless, the repeated anthologizing of the poem ensured its place in the canon—and reaffirmed the power of a short, resonant piece to shape a poet’s legacy.

Audiences most often come to know these two powerful poets, Walker and Brooks, through their most published poems. For readers of African American literature who are hungry for more African American literature, “For My People” and “We Real Cool” have also often been the door into these poets’ worlds, a starting point and a portal to their extensive creative works.